The Barefoot Bandit: Colton Harris Moore - podcast episode cover

The Barefoot Bandit: Colton Harris Moore

Oct 08, 202456 min
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Episode description

Possibly our most-requested subject. And if there's one thing you can about Ridiculous Crime...we do it for the People. So here it is...the strange but true story of Colton Harris Moore, AKA The Barefoot Bandit. Amateur pilot, well-practiced plane thief, and dog lover. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Speaker 1

Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2

Elizabeth Dutton ZD so glad to see you, Good to see you. Do you know it's ridiculous?

Speaker 3

I do. I do our email inbox.

Speaker 2

Oh yeah, I don't even get close.

Speaker 4

It's ridiculous. The interns forwarded me this one though, That is pretty good. Subject tv head fromhead from Jeff Hammer.

Speaker 2

Okay, haad, it's a.

Speaker 4

Good afternoon, Ridiculous Crime crew. It has been brought to my attention that, in true Henrico County, Virginia weirdness, there was a guy in twenty nineteen wearing a TV on his head leaving old box type TVs on people's porches in the middle of the night. Links provided below. The wild thing is that all of the sets left on

people's porches were operational. They identified the man the press dubbed TV head, but to the best of my knowledge, he was never charged, although he was suspected of committing several burglaries in the area. I found out, yeah, I found out about this talking to a colleague because here on the opposite end of the state, a man was recently arrested for taking a ride on a shopping buggy out of a discount grocery store and riding it on the highway. He told the arresting officer that he was

quote tired of walking everywhere. Somehow, that one didn't make the local news. I've seen some weird things and dealt with some really strange people in the sixteen years I've worked in the private security and law enforcement fields. But I think these two might take the cake.

Speaker 2

Oh nice ones.

Speaker 3

Jeff the TV head? How big is the TV on his head? And is it wobbley? Is what happens?

Speaker 2

Is he a member of Parland Funkadelic? Perhaps good question?

Speaker 4

Is he is he the one behind the max headroom hacking?

Speaker 2

Have you seen the guy in New York who rides around on a mini bike with a like a microwave on his head. No slides up and then the microwave door opens up and there's a guy's head in there, and he's like he starts talking and he gives you like safety advice, and then he closes it with a flick of his head and he rides off on his mini bikes. Cousin so New York.

Speaker 3

Yeah, it's amazing and ridiculous.

Speaker 2

Totally ridiculous. Thank you, mister Hammer.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Jeff Hammer.

Speaker 2

So, uh you got a second though, I got something for you. It's totally ridiculous.

Speaker 3

Yes, get like ridiculous.

Speaker 2

I heard that about you. We get a lot of requests for certain stories, right, and frankly, it's kind of ridiculous that I have never covered this story. Why is it taking me so long?

Speaker 3

What's wrong with you?

Speaker 2

I want to tell you, Elizabeth, the story of my new favorite anti hero, the Barefoot Bandit Man. Theis Ridiculous Crime A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers. Heis and cons It's always ninety nine percent murder free, a one hundred percent ridiculous Yes, oh, Elizabeth arn Long before this cat was known as the Barefoot Bandit, his government name was Colton Harris.

Speaker 3

More, Colton Harris Colter.

Speaker 2

I'm gonna call him Colt Okay now born on March twenty second, nineteen ninety one. He arrived in this world in Washington State. You know the upper left corner of the map. Yeah, place called Camono or Camano Island in the San Juan Islands. I think it's Camono Islands now, My man, Colt. He did not have a normal or even what we call a safe childhood. He was, unfortunately, was raised into a home that was headed for an ugly split.

Speaker 3

Elizabeth.

Speaker 2

Yeah, the divide occurred when he was a toddler. His parents broke up. His father left him and his mother, Pamela alone. They were left to live in a single wide trailer in Washington. Yeah. So what made matters more dire was the fact that his mother was a full blown alcoholic. Oh god, yeah, rough, rough business for this kid, which means also for her elementary school aged son. His life was unstable, his home life chaotic, abusive, all the bad things.

Speaker 3

Right, it's a great story, thank you.

Speaker 2

Not only that he was also bullied at school, Elizabeth. Oh, there was no escape for Coult. Yeah, right, finally one day, but this is before he's a teenager. He runs away from home. He spends his days living alone in the forest on the Camino Islets. It's like a well rainforest ground.

Speaker 3

Right, that must have been really peaceful for yeah.

Speaker 2

Except for he's a you know, almost a teenage boy. He's a growing boy. So to eat, he breaks into empty vacation homes I like that. Yeah, And now once inside he finds that these homeowners they've left all sorts of stuff inside their cabin, so he steals whatever he needs to live in the woods. Tents, sleeping bags, camping supply, you name it.

Speaker 3

The hermit.

Speaker 2

Yeah, very much like that, just the young version, right. So eventually he comes back home to the trailer because he's a boy and he can't stay out in the woods forever. So at this point, Cult now he reached school and he's trying his best to live a normal life as he can, and he's going in and out a juvie. It's rough, right, But he has a few friends. He tells them of his forest adventures, trying to impress them with what he does when they don't see him.

Speaker 3

Yeah.

Speaker 2

One of his classmates this a girl named Christa Postma. She would tell the press how her friend Colt would often get in trouble at school. You know, as I've said, but she also said the Cult was quote a nice kid, and he quote seemed really smart, though he didn't know how to put that into his schoolwork. I relate to this kid, you know, I didn't know how to do

it either. So another classmate, he remembered how Colt would sleep in class, you know, just put his head down on the desk, the teacher called on him to embarrass him, Colt would recite back what the teacher just said, like near him, verbatim.

Speaker 4

I always feel like, if you're a teacher and a kid falls asleep, like the first time, wake come up. If it happens a lot, something's happening, right, I don't have a home, and maybe just let the kids sleep.

Speaker 2

For real, right, be a little considerate, thoughtful yea. Anyway, this kid, obviously he's an intelligent kid. He's able to recite back to the teacher. He doesn't need to pay attention. He gets bored, you know. Now after school, Krista and Colt they would hang out together in this town. There wasn't a lot of places for them to go, so they'd hang out outside the local library. Now, one day, this kid who's a couple of years older than them, this kid, his name is Harley Davidson iron Wing.

Speaker 3

Stop the press is Harley.

Speaker 2

Harley Davidson iron Wing. Now it is christ I love this. Yeah, So she recalls old Harley Davidson iron Wing, and he had an instant influence on Colt. As she put it, when Colt quote wasn't around Harley, he'd be totally chill. When Harley showed up, Colt would suddenly be all, I'm so big and bad ou Right, you.

Speaker 3

Got a friend named Harley Davidson Ironing, You'd.

Speaker 2

Never go wrong in such a common story of people like us, like punk kids. You're like, oh, yeah, my friend Harley David's and iron Wing.

Speaker 3

That's like his government name, right.

Speaker 2

That's government name, that's not his street name. Yeah, that's amazing, So naturally, Elizabeth, Harley Davidson iron Wing had been in juvie and for two years, and he knew the ins and outs of street. He knew the rules of how to make it as a low level crimer. He taught Colt everything he knew. So Harley Davidson iron Wing comes from a similar background. Obviously home broken by divorce, raised by a single mom. His mother is also a drinker,

she does drugs, also abusive. So these kids are they totally get each other, right, two bad boys quickly bond. His new mentor if you will, takes Colt under his wing and teaches him how to iron criminally fly. Thank you so, And this this point he teaches cult how to pick locks, how to break into these nice expensive luxury vacation homes on the island Harley Davidson, iron Wing.

He also shows him how to find the likely places keys are hidden, like all the things you know, like, oh, people don't like to do this, that kind of thing.

Speaker 5

Right.

Speaker 2

He gives Colt also with his rule book for vacation home robberies.

Speaker 3

I would love a copy of this rule book.

Speaker 2

Well, I got four rules for it. If you watch. Number one, don't rob somebody's house if you know who lives there.

Speaker 3

It's a good one.

Speaker 2

Good advice because they could recognize you. And also it's just not nice to two. There's that as well. Number two don't turn the lights on ever. Yeah right, Also good advice because you don't want to call attention to your.

Speaker 4

Crimeerprints all over you always with the fingerprints.

Speaker 2

Number three, if you get spotted, run, Okay, I like that, it's probably the best advice. Don't hesitate.

Speaker 3

Run.

Speaker 2

And number four, lastly, never feel guilty. Once you choose crime, you've already crossed over. It's too late to be guilty, so guiltless.

Speaker 4

I mean, I'm cutting these guys a lot of slack because they're too like troubled kid kids.

Speaker 2

Yeah, breaking into vacation home.

Speaker 4

Yeah, I have a vacation home, so you know, go forth, But these kids are going to grow up.

Speaker 3

It's the problem.

Speaker 2

You're talking to my youth, Elizabeth. You don't know what they could grow up into. Now, with this general rule book guiding him, Colt goes to work as a break in artists. Right so, he and old Harley Davidson, they work as a team. They break into the luxury vacation homes all over the island. Harley Davidson, iron Wing. He's a fan of electronics. He also likes jewelry. He likes expensive portable items that he can pawn, right, yeah, Colt.

He likes to steal food. He often will go into the houses and make himself a hot meal.

Speaker 3

Good for him.

Speaker 2

He's a kid, so he also likes to play video games. So like, while Harley Davidson's casing the house, he's making like some hot oatmeal and goes sits down to play the game of like whatever right now. He's also a teenager at this point, so he likes to steal nice clothes, anything that fits him that might freshen his drip. The other kids won't make fun of and over the years, Colt continues to get into trouble and he gets caught, you know, and then the police take him back to

his mother's place. Sometimes he gets put in juvenile hall. As I've said, you know, she'd have to come and collect him, and then that'd be embarrassing for him. When he's fifteen, his mother is also getting irritated with this whole thing. She kicks him out of the house. She's like, I've had it with him fifteen. She's done with it. So now where does Colt go?

Speaker 3

To the woods?

Speaker 2

He moves back into the forest. So he lives like a real world Peter Pan there on his own never never Land, and he continues to break into vacation homes, mostly just to eat into amuse him, right, But he's a kid, so he also signs of his crimes. Yeah, he doesn't always follow the old rule book of Harley David's an Iron Wing. So the word spreads on the islands. Some locals they talk, compare notes, they determine there's probably some teen boys breaking in. So this casual man begins

to find this kid. Now, Elizabeth, I think I need to do a better job explaining this island. You have to understand, this island is like one third vacation homes. Yeah, he just failed. It's a happy hunting ground for a teenage boy.

Speaker 4

And if you're in, if you're impoverished, it's like rubbing it in your face. Oh that this like dichotomy between the people who actually live their year round and struggle and then the people who swan in, yes and have a great time totally.

Speaker 2

Yeah, And the rest of them are there doing like menial tasks that can help these people, like oh, let me weld your tanks for your home or whatever.

Speaker 3

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2

So at this point he's uh, he starts getting a little more aggressive in his approach as he gets older, and he starts to feel this bitterness in this division, if you will. Socially, he starts to steal things like identities. So what that means is he steals credit cards. And then he learned to become a better thief because rather than breaking into homes, he now has owner's credit cards.

So what does he do? Ye uses their computers and then he pulls a full on Elizabeth and he goes online shopping and has stuff just delivered to the house and he just steals it from the front port.

Speaker 3

What have you heard?

Speaker 2

So he has like all kinds of stuff delivered to these vacation homes for him to steal later, and he'd leave, circle back, come back on like a oh my deliveries here, I got to go back to the house. Boom. He gets his packages. Mostly though he's purchasing like survival gear and food. I don't want to give you the wrong idea. He's not like buying like four wheelers. But he comes

to collect it and he goes back to the forest. Now, eventually the locals they get the police to start paying attention to this because it's starting to ratchet up and the crimes that the locals are gossiping about. Everybody's talking about it. Cops are fine, we'll investigate. So they go out and they find evidence. Oh there's truly are deliveries being brought out to houses that are unoccupied. So they start finding also evidence of identity theft. They're like, oh man,

this is definitely happening. So the local cops are like, this is above our pay right. Yeah. They call in the FBI. Wow. Yeah, So the field agents arrive. They searched the rainforest.

Speaker 3

Camano Island mail fraud.

Speaker 2

Yeah, it's once at that point, is your federal Yeah, so he They quickly, the FEDS. They quickly locate Colt's campsite, or rather one of his campsites, because he's got multiple campsites, but it's this is his main campsite. And the kid has a cash of credit cards, check books, driver's licenses, stolen laptops, oh, iPads, yeah, jewelry, all sorts of stuff, right, but also the food and the survival equipment. So what

they don't find, oh is Colt. Oh he's gone. He hears the FBI's choppers and the field agents, is like kind of rummaging around in the woods, cuts out, disappears. Not even the local police seeum, he sneaks off. So where does he go, Elizabeth, He's now out of the woods to the big city. Goes back to his mother's trailer. Oh, but he sees the FBI going to his mother's trailer and the agent server with a warrant for his arrest,

so he dips out of there. The local cops post wanted posters all over the island.

Speaker 3

Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2

Yeah. Meanwhile, Colt's still on the lamb. No one's got to him. He's somewhere out there in the wood, lurking like Bigfoot. It's just a matter of time before he'll strike again because he has to. He's gonna get hungry, right, so he breaks into a vacation home. The local police and FBI agents, they're patrolling everywhere waiting for him to strike. Right. Finally, this night, when he finds his unoccupied home and breaks in, he does what he normally does. He makes himself a

hot meal. Right, but he makes one mistake. He forgets again what Harley David's and Iron Wing told him in the Simple Rule Book for break in Artists.

Speaker 3

Did he turn the lights?

Speaker 2

He turns on a light while he eats his hot meal by himself. The neighbors see the light through the trees. These neighbors, Elizabeth, they're like you. They're busy bodies. So they know no one's supposed to be in that house. We know that the lenders are gone. Yeah, so the neighbors call the cops. The cops have been waiting for this. They race across the island, They surround the vacation home. Now they're smart. They pull up without turning on their lights,

without turning on their sirens, just silent descent. Right, they're able to sneak up on the vacation home and catch Colt unaware. Boom gets arrested. February two thousand and seven, Colton Harris Moore crime spree comes to a sudden screeching stop. He's charged with twenty three criminal charges.

Speaker 3

Yikes.

Speaker 2

Yeah, once these charges all get sorted out and the lawyers confirm, though, they eventually agree to have Colt plead guilty to just three charges because he is a kid, right, so the prosecutors are satisfied. His sentence. He gets three years at a maximum security juvenile detention film. Oh wow, I didn't even know they had maximum security juvenile Yeah.

I mean, of course, but I just thought they'd kind of put him like in the yard with the adults, but like separated by offense, you know, like you got to go to the real prison. But we got a.

Speaker 3

Specials place for you, the kid's table.

Speaker 2

Yeah exactly, No, they have their owns anyway, Colt. He takes all this in stride. In fact, his behavior improves Elizabeth. He settles into this rhythm of life in a maximum security juvie facility. He's chom, a model prisoner exactly. He likes the attention, the structure works for him. He gets rewarded for his good behavior, transferred to a lower security facility, a residential treatment center. Right because he may or may not have fetal alcohol syndrome or some damage from his mother.

Speaker 4

Say, goodness, you know, I think this kid's been up against it from.

Speaker 2

Birth, completely up against it is the best way to put it. Now, this new group home that they put him in, it has no fence, has no prison guards, just like a nice place for people to rehabilitate. Right. Short two months after he's transferred there for good behavior, Colt opens an unlocked window and he's gone. So now it's April two thousand and eight. Cold is once again free, ready to get back to his criming ways. Oh boy, Okay, Lizabeth,

let's take a little break. Now you got to know the boy, and after these ads, I'll tell you how this story gets crazy and he earns his gnome to crime the Barefoot bandit. Oh, Elizabeth, Darren, how do you like my man Colt and Harrison more fascinating? Right?

Speaker 3

Yeah?

Speaker 2

Well, okay, so at this point he's about to become like a real bona fire criminal because now he's been inside outside, he's been, he's been, he's had his cherry broken by the cops where he's like, oh, you're going three away, and he gets he escapes. So now he's on the.

Speaker 3

Lamb and he grows up, and he grows up.

Speaker 2

Convicted criminal, all right, So he breaks out the group home Colt. He goes back to his old stomping grounds. He goes right back to Commono Island or Camano Island.

Speaker 3

Interesting, I know those.

Speaker 2

It didn't take him long for the local authorities to hear about a new wave of vacation home breaking, and then they hear the cult escape from Juvie. So they put two and two together. They get to four on their own, and they go only scour the woods of the forest. This is of course, also accompanied by all kinds of news stories, because now he's making these. The local cops look about his incompetent as Keystone cops. So like local outlets like Oregon Live, Seattle Times, the host

intelligence or they're writing about this. Now the national media now catches wind of the story. They send reporters out to go go see if there's something there, right, national news folks. They find his mother's trailer they talk to on camera, where she pleads for leniency for her poor troubled son. She also asked her son, if he's watching, to turn himself in.

Speaker 4

You know what again, I think I've said this before. My advice is that any event of a natural disaster or some sort of criminal event, do not get interviewed by the television stations.

Speaker 2

Just very deal will come from that.

Speaker 3

It won't and so just no comment.

Speaker 2

Best you'll go viral and not in the way you probably think.

Speaker 3

Exactly.

Speaker 2

So, now do you think caught these interviews and he turned himself in? No? No, no, he did not.

Speaker 3

Know because he's not turning on TVs and listening.

Speaker 2

He's out there with Bigfoot.

Speaker 4

Yeah, but he's also if he breaks into a vacation home, he's not like, well, let's see what's on the news. You right to the video games, play some video games, and then bounce out.

Speaker 2

So for the next three months, he keeps evading the local police, he keeps breaking into homes, he keeps stealing, keeps cooking himself hot meals. He also starts now to steal cars because he's like sixteen, Yeah, so he starts taking those out for joy rides. And these drives. They're a new wrinkle for him because it is his profile on the island. Now he's spinning around and there's cops in cars. It's not they kept finding him in the woods. Now just on a street.

Speaker 4

Well, and there's a big difference between like stealing a box of mac and cheese and the water used to boil the Posita versus there goes my car.

Speaker 2

Yeah, there's my that's my BMW.

Speaker 3

Yeah.

Speaker 2

So he gets caught, and this is July eighteen, two thousand and eight. My man Colt gets spotted by the cops. At the moment, he's driving a stolen whip, a black Mercedes, Oh Dad, going one hundred miles an hour. Whoa dand cops give chase. They keep in mind Cold hasn't been driving for long. No one really taught him. He's just been learning on.

Speaker 3

His own, like you know, grand theft autos.

Speaker 2

Pretty much. Going as fast as he is chased by the cops, the expected occurs, he crashed, but being my man Colt, it doesn't go the way you would think. He does crash the black Mercedes. You're right about that. But just before he crashes the car, he leaps from the speeding car, oh way, and the black Mercedes goes slams into a tree. The cops screeched to a halt, and Colt, unharmed, runs for it disappears back into the woods.

Speaker 4

He has the confidence of a kid who's just watched and stuff and not been real and.

Speaker 2

Still has also like the bones and the like ligaments and attendance of a kid as well. He can take that kind of His cardilage doesn't go what are you doing?

Speaker 3

That's like if I get out of a car too fast, ode.

Speaker 2

I'm lucky if I have cartilage in places still, And I'm like, oh, hey, there's cartage between those bones. Yes, yeah, So the cops they searched the stolen Mercedes he left behind, the one smashed into the tree. Right, the police they find this treasure trove of evidence. There's stolen cell phones, there's credit cards, also importantly a digital camera. Oh. On this digital camera, the cops find pictures of Colt. He's got like selfies. Yeah. Oh, he's also got pictures of

his campsite. Right, and the cops they're able to locate this campsite, and they go out to the campsite. What do they find? They find his dog. You see, he had a dog and he left him at the campsite. So he wasn't very far away. And then the cops they find this pooch named Melanie, right, and the cops they take they take Melanie the dog. This changes the complexion of Colt's crime sprees. Yeah, I'm serious. The dude goes full on john Wick.

Speaker 3

Is this say? This is like this is his origins?

Speaker 2

Yes? I mean he doesn't go full john he goes like ten percent john Wick because there's no guns, but also like anger about the dog. That's all there.

Speaker 3

I feel it. So he writes, I can see that.

Speaker 2

Oh like you would, you would totally identify with this kid's Like, well, here, I'll just tell you. So he writes a note, sends it to his mother because he's still in contact with her all the time. So the note is about the cops grabbing Melanie. It reads, quote, the cops want a play, huh it's war? Tell them that. Yeah, so Colt coming for the cops this point, Elizabeth. He's still on the lamb right, and he's also convicted. So anyway, the locals are worried and scared about this guy. Think

maybe he's armed, maybe he's dangerous, you know. Sightings of Colt get reported all across the island. He's here, he's there, he's everywhere. Right. The locals starts to stock up on firearms and ammo right, and I'm talking mostly like the vacation own people, not the local one.

Speaker 3

Imagine fears he's never no.

Speaker 2

Never done anyone hard, violent, No, not at all. So Colt realizes if he stays on this island, he will eventually be caught again. So he can only hide out in the forest for so long. So he tries a new tech. What's he do, Elizabeth, I have no idea steals a boat. Got to get off the island smart, So he makes a run for it to a new island, a place called Orcas Island. Right like, it goes like I'm found by an orca, Like this is Orcas Island.

Speaker 3

When they attack boats, Oh my god, yes, oh my god. That makes me so happy.

Speaker 4

I get like high reading articles about how killer whales after yachts.

Speaker 2

Totally destroy them, and you're like, oh, tell me more. It's like how I feel about elephants when they go and take it after people. Yeah, side with elephants. I'm sorry. I figured they must have done something wrong. I've never seen an elephant just decide I'm gonna go after them.

Speaker 3

Their total sweet peas.

Speaker 2

Yeah, and they have long memories from what I understand.

Speaker 3

So and he never forgets.

Speaker 2

He ditches his boat when he gets over to Orcas Island and he treks into the woods because you know, that's what he knows. He camps out, finds a nice spot in the woods near a local airport.

Speaker 3

Okay.

Speaker 2

Now, Colet always love planes as a boy. He'd watch them fly overhead. He could identify them by their cillorette.

Speaker 3

I would imagine there's like seaplanes all over the place.

Speaker 2

Exactly, a lot of puddle jumpers, all sorts of planes. Interesting, a lot of also small aircraft for people flying in from air. A lot of these islands on the airfields.

Speaker 3

So that's like how they get around soup.

Speaker 2

So his mother, she would recall, like to the press about how her son as a boy, just loved planes right he he could. She would buy him balsa wood models, like the old school balcewood models, and he would build those. He also she bought the books about planes, she told one reporter, and I quote from the time he was a little kid. He could look up at any plane in the sky and tell you what make it was what engine it had when it was built, and weather was a good safe one.

Speaker 3

Oh.

Speaker 2

Now, at school he would spend his time obviously playing Microsoft flight Simulator, right, So if you checked his MySpace page, you'd find he listed his occupation as pilot, which reminded me of that guy you told me about on Reddit the the a t a guy who was like, uh, his girlfriend got mad because he told people at her work dinner party he was a pilot.

Speaker 4

He was introducing himself as pilot. Yeah, her work functions. And the truth of the matter is he just he'd never flown. He had flight simulator going in like a special room in his house.

Speaker 2

Like ten thousand hours on flight.

Speaker 4

Simulator exactly, and it was just like but he would he would brag about it, but not about being just sitting in his chair.

Speaker 3

But yeah, and it went on from there.

Speaker 2

But well, that's how I kept picturing this kid. I was like, oh, yeah, here we go, another flight simulator pilot. So there he is camping in the forest. It surrounds his local airport. He's watching the small planes land, he's watching them take off, he's clocking the workers. He figures out the schedules, the rhythms, and he starts to plan his next move. What do you think he did, Elizabeth, Well, that's right, he stole the plane, my man, amazing.

Speaker 3

So he knows from flight simulator.

Speaker 4

It's got to be brutal to be like hanging out in the woods and seeing this freedom flying over you.

Speaker 3

They can go wherever they want.

Speaker 2

Yeah, and you need to go off an island. People are after you. Yeah, you're like, you're a kid. You're like, I can do that.

Speaker 3

I totally do that.

Speaker 4

Yeah.

Speaker 2

Do you think he managed to like go out and probably? Well, rather me tell you about, Elizabeth, I'd like you to close your eyes. I like you to picture it. It's a November on a place called Orchis Island in the San Juan Chain of Islands. They're off of the coast of Washington State. It's right around sundown, and you, Elizabeth, are the little angel on the shoulder of a wayward boy. You are both there at the stand of trees at the edge of the woods, and the boy gazes at

an airfield. You tell him not to do what you hear him thinking. But the little devil on his other shoulder scoffs and laugh and he says, you know you want to do it, do it now. Without warning, the teenage boy hops over the deer fence runs towards the airfield. You hang on to his shoulder as he runs for a Cessna one eight two sky lane. It's a simple plane to fly. It's a sort of plane that beginners get comfortable flying alone. It's the VW Bug of airplanes.

Now there's one sitting alone in a hangar, and the kid runs right for that hanger. He's a big boy. This kid is six foot five wa His six foot five frame lumbers across the grass and he makes it to the hangar. You try to reason with the boy, tell him you've had your fun, time to go home, But he listens to the little devil instead, and he picks the lock door. The door swings open. The teen sneaks in. He finds keys hanging on a hook. You plead with him to stop what he's doing. Someone could

get hurt. You're something of a worry word, Elizabeth, and he ignores you again. Instead, he climbs into the Cessna, but he doesn't start it up right away. That's a relief for you. Instead, he finds the manual. He reads it. You're glad that he's checking the section on autopilot safety first, you think. Plus, you know he has played a ton of Microsoft flight simulator in the game. The Cessna one eighty two is the dashboard you learned to fly on.

Now he's sitting behind the real deal. He studies the manual, compares the real dashboard to what he knows to see if it's all the same gauge's same controls. By sunrise, he feels he's got it. He spent the entire night studying, So now he hops out, goes to open the roll top door of the hanger. You suggest to him, you've had your fun, now time to go, But the little devil on his shoulders forget her. You deserve to have

some fun now cold agrees with him. Now not you, So he grabs the planes tobar and uses the full leverage of a six foot five frame two hundred pounds to push the plane out of the hangar. You beg and plead for him to stop. On the tarmac. He hops into the stolen Cessna, fires up that two hundred and twenty five horspower fuel injected engine. You argue, you plead, you guilt, but no one is listening to you. Elizabeth. Colt points the nose of the plane south. He taxis

down the runway. This is it, it's really happening. At the end of the runway. Is the ocean well, Puget sound. You tell Colt that he doesn't get his takeoff right, he's gonna be a bad please to crash. The devil's his go ahead. Colt pops the plane's toe breaks, He grabs the throttle pushes it forward. The propeller's plane engine roars to life. The aircraft starts to roll forward, quickly picking up speed. The airstrip is short. It's also thin.

You argue, do not do this too late. Now hold on, Elizabeth, because the plane's about to roll right off the runway. Colt smashes down on the right rudder pedal. That counteracts the pull of the propeller's spin and the torquet generates. Quick thinking, you say to him, you remind cult that he could still turn off the plane engine and get out. The plane continues to pick up speed. The propeller chops at the air The plane reaches sixty miles an hour.

That's the magic number. You feel the plane lift up from the runway and it takes off you see the sun is also lifting up over the eastern horizon, cresting over Mount Baker, which is blanketed in snow. It's like dyllic Don's first leg. Colt banks the Sestana towards the rising sun, Elizabeth. Nothing for you to do now but enjoy the view. Colt turns again heads south. He can see his home from here, well, his home, Camano Island. Colt continues flying south by southeast over the forested woods

of mainland western Washington. Next you see Seattle, which looks beautiful from the air. Look, there's Pike Street Market, you hear yourself saying, Colt flying at the ceiling of ten thousand feet, close enough to see the faces on the ground still, and also it's early so the city is mostly asleep. Once he flies past Seattle, he aims for the next SPECS thing he can see from a distance, a snow capped Mount Rainier. You comment on how pretty

it looks in the morning light. The little devilt imitate you. Oh help, Then he laughs, and again Colt follows his advice. He follows the Cascade Mountain range heading east. You tell him mountains make for very choppy air. Read turbulence. You try to remind cult that he's in a tiny propeller plane flying for the first time ever. Also, it's November, storm grade winds. They come ripping off the Cascade Mountains. Soon enough, the Cessna gets hit by a storm force wind.

The Little Devil laughs gleefully as the tiny plane is cast about in the sky like some small ship and storm toss seas. Only these seas are the sky. One wind verse hits the Cessna like an invisible dump truck, smashing into the Blaine. The Sesta bucks and falls out in the sky. Somehow, Colt recovers all his hours of flight simulator and indeed paid off. The Little Devil urges them on, good, come on, go down. Meanwhile, you're giving up, arguing you've just closed your eyes. Colt is in heaven

for a few hours. He enjoys this rare view. Finally, at eleven am, the fuel gate says fun time over. At this point, three hundred miles from where he took off, somewhere over Yakama Indian Reservation. You suggest, oh, look a rural airfields to land, but the Little Devil says, no. Crash the plane and Colt listens to him. Kid Colt tries to spot a soft place to crash land. He points the nose of the propeller plane at the earth.

You scream, you hit it. As the plane plummets and the ground rushes up, you race for impact and count down with cold five. Four, three, You shake your fist at the little devil on the Colt's shoulder. Two one. The plane slams into the ground. It skips over the dirt like a stone on a pond, and it slams back to the earth. The propeller and the ancient chew up dirt and prairie until finally the plane stops slide, fighting over tall scrub grass and comes to a gentle stop.

The little Devil looks over at you and says, see, I told you he could do it. Oh my god, is Elizabeth. I know it's a low bar, but in my book, any crash landing you can walk away from is a successful way.

Speaker 3

We say so a couple a couple of notes on this. I like that. I think you wrote yourself into the picture it as the devil.

Speaker 2

What what are you talking about his shoulder? I don't know what you're talking about.

Speaker 4

And to find out that he's six foot five to tell you that it's got to be really tough.

Speaker 2

He's got this.

Speaker 4

Giant man body that most men will never achieve at that height.

Speaker 3

And like, but he's got the brain of a kid and a brain that you know.

Speaker 2

Has the impulse control of a kid.

Speaker 4

Yeah, and like his you know, so you have this, it's got to be so difficult to navigate the world that way. God, and the fact that he could study a manual all night, and so he has.

Speaker 2

These skills really really smart.

Speaker 4

And it's like I hate when people say, oh, you know, he could have they could have just directed him purely to that kind of education. What they need to do is understand the soft skills of education of what he was lacking to be able to apply that, you know, to whatever.

Speaker 2

He needed a holistic approach as opposed to just a skills based approachable. He needs to do this test and showed this person he passed this test and go on to make money.

Speaker 4

Right exactly, help the boy become When you said he was six or five, all of a sudden, I'm like, oh poor.

Speaker 2

Yeah, I wait until you're seeing him in motion. Yeah yeah, all right, well respect him a man cult right now? His mother she hears about what her son has done, because the reporters come to send her as soon as this gets reported, and she says, and I quote, evidently he didn't need flight school. So not your typical motherly response, I'll admit, but we already knew that about her now

his mother, Pamela. She also told reporters who came a call and quote, I'm not saying it's right, but if he flew those planes, I'm very, very proud of him. Oh yeah, So at least his mom's proud of him. And tell him that, you know, to the TV media, and he's catching it apparently. Anyway, She also hopes her son will start wearing a parachute whenever he steals a plane. She is, after all, a mother still anyway. Meanwhile, back to the crash site, the plane's total course, house cold.

He's okay, he survives, totally, totally fine. He walks away unharmed. When the police arrived, no colt, he's gone. Only thing that they find is his vomit on the dashboard of the plane. So apparently he hit and then puked. Right the puke just tells the cops what cult ate for breakfast. That's the only clues they have to go on.

Speaker 4

Yeah, I mean he might have gotten like a.

Speaker 2

Like a concussion. Yeah, I'd be willing to bet you got a concussion. Maybe even like a bruise on his face or broken nose, something like that cracks some webs. But he was not, like he was able to walk away and didn't need immediately go to the hospital.

Speaker 4

Yeah.

Speaker 2

So, And there's also no signs of which way he disappeared back into the woods. Gone, Yeah, so.

Speaker 3

And he's three hundred miles away from home.

Speaker 2

Yeah, exactly. So at this point, Colt is like he's basically Bigfoot with a stolen plane. You know, he's just he goes disappears into the woods. The only difference between him at Big Food is the stolen plane. So what does Colt do now that he's officially a pilot?

Speaker 3

Steals another point?

Speaker 2

No, he steals a car. There's a trick question. He drives that until he gets he runs out of gas. And then why does he do that? Because rather than hit a gas station where there are cameras which the police can use to track down his movement, he ditches the stolen car, then steals a new one. He's literally, as you've said, going through life like Grand Theft Auto the Cult version. Now it's spring of two thousand and nine. At this point, Cult is still successfully on the run,

so he does what other older criminals do. He goes back home. He returns to Kamlo Islands and for the next two months he lays low, really well kind of. He hits a few homes and then disappears. And then in June of two thousand and nine, he's feeling bored of a or maybe a little rambunctious, and Colt breaks into a police car. He steals a rifle and a box of AMMO. Then he melts back in the woods. So now it's Bigfoot with a rifle. Summertime passes, September

rolls around. He decides to time to island top again. So he steals now a quarter of a million dollar luxury boat. He's still a two hundred and fifty thousand dollars luxury boat.

Speaker 3

Oh my god.

Speaker 2

Takes off for a place called Friday Harbor over in San Juan Island. Once he's there, he cases that island and what did he do? He gets an itch to go flying. Oh my gosh, so second little break can after this, I will come back and tell you how my man cold gets back into the skies. Were back, Elizabeth, Hi, how you dig him? A man?

Speaker 3

This is so good.

Speaker 2

See why it's my new favorite anti hero and what I relate to him so much? He is for me The road untaken? Yeah, the path are passing. The wood diverged and I took the one less interesting. So anyway, my man called, he's at this point. I told you he's got an itch to go flying again. He's like land of the last plane, So do this again? So and he also needs to get off an island. So he goes down and he finds a local airfield because I remember I told all these islands have these small

little airfields. He finds that one he spots another plane, not assessmin of this time. This time it's a Serrus SR twenty two. That's a plane he fancies. It's a nice plane, right, So he waits for his opportunity. Then he sneaks onto the airfield, climbs into the cockpit, starts the engine, taxis down the runway, and he steals away into the sky. Colt still hasn't learned how to fly a plane, though, other than the manual he read right,

So again he has to crash it. He knows basically how to handle a plane in the sky, but he can't get them down out of the sky, right, so crashes it on Orches Island. Back to Orchis Island right now, Elizabeth Orchis Island is home to four thousand full time residents, okay, mini part time residents. The island boasts all kinds of vacation homes for real money, like Microsoft millionaires, Boeing contractors.

Most famous resident Gary Larson of the Far Side fame. Yeah, right, so Colt he survives plane crash onto Gary Larson's island, and the crash planned it sends up this cloud of smoke, right, and I've got all these rich people on this island. So the authorities come out to investigate. They think maybe Gary Larson crashes helicopter or whatever. I don't know. They discover, oh my god, this is plane crash, but no pilot. They put two and two together and it's cold. So

the police spring into action, right. They erect roadblocks, they close the docks, the marine is They alert the local airfield to be on high alert. We're gonna catch this. Sob this time, I don't know how he does it. I'm impressed by the fact he does. But somehow cult evades the roadblocks, the closed harbor, the marina. Somehow he sneaks down to the water line and he steals a boat. And he races away in a stolen speed boat. Where

to go now, Canada. He's getting international with it, all right, So he jumps the all the cops on his tail and he makes it over the watery border to Canada. Now he keeps playing his one man game of cult GTA. He breaks into homes, he commits more burglaries, he steals some cars, he ditches them, steals more cars. Ben he finds in himself in the place called Creston, Canada, A little place now. I guess he gets tired of snacking on poutine because he quickly dips back down the lower

forty eight. He steals a car, drives back across the border into a town called Bonner's Ferry in Idaho. Now he goes to the local airport because he loves those, and he promptly steals a Cessna one eighty two, his third stolen plane. He flies this one same as the others, really well in the sky. He flies two hundred and fifty miles west back to Washington and then in a town called Granite Falls, he successfully crash lands the plane.

By this point, the national news media is loving this crazy kids kid who just keeps stealing planes and crashing him and walking away. Yeah, so my man called, He's stolen planes, crashed them, survive, stolen expensive boats, escape the US, escape the fbis, he's stolen cars. He just left them, dotting the landscape like he's a vehicular Johnny Appleseed right. Naturally,

all the usual suspects begin to profit off this kid's story. CNN, Fox, CBS News, the Canadian Broadcasting Company, Today's Show on NBC, all of them. They send out the reporters to document his crime spreees. They all start to profit off his escapades. As his stories keep going viral, go international. He's now got a Facebook fan page. It starts popping off, Elizabeth. There are kids in Australia who were wearing T shirts

that say fly Colt and fly You're kidding. Kids in Italian City's wearing shirts to say Mama tried for cult.

Speaker 3

Wow.

Speaker 2

He was out an international folk hero for teens.

Speaker 3

Wow.

Speaker 2

So cult is at this point laying low on the island. He still needs to eat, still a grown boys six foot five, so you know he's hungry. His hunger cannot be denied, so he breaks into a grocery store steals food and some money. He also leaves footprints intentionally, he leaves chalk outlined footprints of his bare feet. What see, I'm telling you, yes, he's bigfoot with a stolen plane. But they don't they like the press somehow misses that

he's like doing like a bigfoot thing. But they instead they refer to this chalk outlined feet and they give him the nickname the barefoot bandit. Okay, I mean, yeah, it's got good alliteration. But clearly the man is doing a barefoot thing in the bigfoot area and he goes out to the woods.

Speaker 4

I mean, come on, do you imagine growing up like bigfoot banded. How much the bigfoot bandits legs must have ached to be young and six.

Speaker 2

Oh yeah, his bones are just stretching it. You can watch them go like a plant. Yeah yeah, huh. So at this point, my big foot banded with a stolen plane, right, the press are all excited. But also I forgot to tell you when he did that he left the chalk outline of his own feet in the store. He also left a note for the cops. Really three letters, see dash y, a exclamation point, see you.

Speaker 3

Oh my god.

Speaker 2

The media loves this. They brought on this once again. The cops and the authorities are furious. They're embarrassed. They're made to look like fools by the teenage boy Clever. So what do they do, well, the local cops they called the FBI back. Can you guys try again.

Speaker 3

Bail state police they could.

Speaker 2

Oh, yeah, they've they've been doing that, but it's Washington State Police. Like Oregon. Washington don't really have like the same levels a place to say California, We're used like CHP or like sometimes I don't message John. In Oregon, this is like as few as eight highway patrol on patrol at any one time, eight officers in the entire state.

Speaker 3

Whole state.

Speaker 2

Wow, blow me away, anyway. So at this point they call the FBI back in. They also call Homeland Security. Yes, the federal alphabet agents starts swarming over island, upsetting all the well heeled locals. This is not why they came to live in and out of the way island. Elizabeth. Yeah, at this point it's May. At the end of the month, cops discover a new note and one hundred dollars bill taped to the door of a vet clinic. The note is, of course from Colt, and I quote drove by, adds

some extra cash. Please use this money for the care of animals Colton Harris Moore Aka it's a barefoot bandit.

Speaker 3

Oh Colton.

Speaker 2

Yes, so he's leaving money at that to take care of.

Speaker 3

Animals, all in the name of Melanie.

Speaker 2

Yeah, telling you it is. That's his motivation. That's where he flips and twists and turns and everything becomes like the war. So that same day he goes down to the docks. He finds a super expensive racing boat and he likes it, so he steals it. Boom, he takes off to Oregon. Now, my favorite part, Elizabeth, is how he calls his attorney from this now stolen go fast boat. Yes, the man's got an attorney and he's got a phone. So what is he to want to talk about. He's

arranging his negotiated handover to the Feds. No, no, he's not. Is he negotiating the movie rights for his life story? Yes? Yes he is. Wait, he wants a lawyer to ask for top dollar for any potential movie to be made about him, his life and his crimes. Oh my god, of course. Then he goes. He hides out again. Soon enough, he grows bored, so Colt steals a car, drives to yanked In, South Dakota. Yankton Wood. That's a town that should be fel familiar to the fans of the show Deadwood,

the Yankedon people. Yeah right, So Yankton, that's where we are, Yankton, South Dakota. And Colt sets up shop, starts casing some houses he plans to break into. He finds this one fitting house, breaks in, makes himself at home, makes himself a hot meal. He also takes off his dirty clothes and he does a load of laundry. Then he goes and he takes a hot shower. You know, he may have broken in, but essentially he's just stolen a home for himself. That's what he's done, right, But the house

he selected is not a vacation home. It looks like a vacation home, it's not a vacation home. Elizabeth, the family just happened to be away. Ironically, on vacation.

Speaker 3

Oh no.

Speaker 2

So at three am, the family returns home. The Clark family comes back from their vacation. When mister Clark walks into the family home, he senses something just ain't right. You know what that is? Lights are off, that's not it. The weird thing is the TV is on. He's like, I know, I did not leave the TV on.

Speaker 3

Yeah.

Speaker 2

He's a super observer like you yeah, yeah, Now I would have noticed that Colt left the remainder of his hot meal on the kitchen counter. That's what we're to cut my eyes. So mister Clark, from these two clues, he's able to determine there's someone in the house. He tells his family stay out, and he searches the family home. He creeps through the hallways looking for this interloper. In the hallway, he notices at the end the bathroom lights on the door is a jar. Oh boy, Colt, here's

footsteps approach. But he doesn't jump out in surprise and attack mister Clark. No, instead, he jumps out and just runs past him. So mister Clark gets his six foot five guy running back him at three am or three thirty probably at this point, and then he hears the guy rush through his house and he recognizes the sound. He hears him run down into the basement, and then he also recognizes, wait, I know where he is. He rushes and locks the door. He's trapped Colt in his basement.

Then he phones the police. The cops rush out to the house. You know exactly who this guy is. They're geeked, Elizabeth. Yea Colt trapped in a basement with no escape. They have him finally, make fun of us. The cops arrive at the Clark home and they enter the premises. They search the home. They go down to the basement, flashlights drawn. Just imagine shafts of light peering through the dark. And what do they find, Elizabeth, don't guess. I'll tell you.

Colt is gone. He grabbed his laundry from the washing machine. That's why he ran down to the basement. He grabbed his other stuff, and then he wriggled out of a basement window, squeezed out gone. He maybe six foot five, he still weighs two hundred pounds. He's a thin, big boy.

Speaker 3

Yeah.

Speaker 2

So he doesn't run far though. He runs to a neighbor's house. There he breaks in find some car, Keys steals the neighbor's car, drives off my cot man. Colt gets away yet again.

Speaker 3

Wow.

Speaker 2

The local cops and the FEDS now they know that they've got this kid, Colt, and and he's gonna break a run for a local airfield, right like that's his way or he can't get to a boat. He can't be this isn't an island. So they say watch the airport, right, this high alert works. No plane gets stolen, and then caution wears off. Days pass. One week later, on the fourth of July, when everyone's totally distracted, Colt sneaks onto the airfield. Get this, Elizabeth, he steals a plane.

Speaker 4

He's gonna have great views of fireworks, totally amazing expensive Cessma this time, not like on a small training plane like the first couple.

Speaker 2

This time he steals a Cessna four hundred. It's worth seven hundred thousand dollars. Oh dang, Yeah, Colt steals the plane because you know he plans to fly further than he's ever flown before. This is a real like, oh, I can fly to New York in this plane. Oh, his plan to fly to Cuba. So he taxes he his newly stolen plane down the runway. He climbs back into the sky, up there among the clouds, where he likes it. He flies across the US. He flies all the way to the Atlantic. Then he turns and heads

for Cuba. But he's not a trained pilot, so he misjudges one thing, his fuel. Somewhere over the Atlantic, he realizes he's almost out of fuel and he will not make it to Cuba. So what does he do now, Elizabeth? He spots the Bahamas on the horizon. He flies for the islands and he makes it barely to the Bahamas, where he crash lands. The seven hundred thousand dollars beauty of a plane plays destroyed, but my man Cold walks

away unharmed. Cold Boom another successful landing. Colt walks to a fishing village where he promptly breaks into local stores and steals some food. He's hungry again, so then he's still hungry, so he breaks into some restaurants and then gets some more, throwing teenage boy, what are you gonna do?

Always starving? So in the news coverage of Cold story, there's this one woman who I caught who was like once kind of cult and I kind of wanted to include her because she gives us a little perspective on him. She cared for him when he was a she's a foster mother, but she cared for him like a foster mother. So she sees this at risk youth and she's part of a program helping kids, and she tries to help

this wayward boy. And she spoke with the press at this around this time when people start going, why is this kid doing it? She someone finds her and she says, well, she believes and I quote Colt didn't intend for all this to happen. It's gotten away from him now, right, She hadn't met him when he was fourteen, before he started stealing planes, when he was just doing court ordered

community service, right, that kind of stuff. He's so one day he arrives and she's running the court ordered community service in a park, cleaning up. He arrives without any lunch. She notices it. She recalls, quote, I fed him, gave him water, and he was just so very grateful. Now

she also noticed it. He was a hard worker. He was smart, as I've pointed out, he knew a quote ridiculous amount of knowledge of local plants, and he was kind hearted, much like her, and she said, and I quote, he really struck me as a good hearted kid who'd always been looked at with negative expectations. It didn't have a lot of motivation to feel good about his life, yet when given an opportunity, I mean, he just worked

his butt off. How is it possible that all these groups of people and systems in place miss children like this over and over again? So yeah, she also recalled, by the way, when Colt was done with his community service, he biked back ten miles to this park where she worked, and he met her and it was like just kind of checking in. She remembers how, and I quote, he was kind of shy, handed me three small bags and

just said here. I told him we had a very small budget for new plants, and he'd gone out and hand harvested seeds from local flowers that he thought would grow well in the park. I said, oh my god, thank you so much. And he's like, yeah, all right, turned around and said thank you for being so nice to me. I was literally teary eyed.

Speaker 3

Oh my god.

Speaker 2

And I told you all that because I wanted you to keep that in mind as I keep calling him my man Clt. Right, he's tea, he's a teenage kid. He's on the run. And I know, yes, he's crashed a stolen seven hundred thousand dollars plan that he stole into the Bahamas, Right, but he made it to the Bahamas, right, I'm still on his side. Yeah, So next stop, Cuba. Do you think he makes it?

Speaker 3

Does he pull a tupac? No?

Speaker 2

After the plane crash is discovered, because remember he's sending up smoke signals. Basically, local authorities track down the stolen plane and they tell the US authorities, Oh, this is one of yours. They tell the Bahamian authorities to hold the pilot, right, and they say, if you catch him, hold them. We'll be there as soon as we can get there. The locals they put up wanted posters of this kid, Colt Harris More because that's what the FEDS tell them. Yeah. Knowing that the heat is now on.

When he sees one of his wanted posters, Colt does what he does best. He cuts and runs, don't hesitate. Run, So he steals another go fast boat and he takes off for Harbor Island, assuming this is one of the bigger islands in the Bahamas, assuming that'll be a bigger, better place for him to hide out. Okay, he makes it. He docks the boat, sneaks down to a luxury hotel to like hide out, let the coolick, you know, let the heat blow over, maybe find maybe it'll quick score somewhere.

Speaker 3

Yeah.

Speaker 2

Instead, security guards spot him, They recognize, you know, belong here. They give chase. Colt tries to run, but at this point he's grabbed a gun somewhere, so he turns back, flashes a gun. The secure guards see that if they turn they run away. They go and they call the cops. Right, we're gonna need backup. Cops mobilize. Also local federal agents, also the military. Everybody on this Bahamian island are all searching for this kid, all of them armed right, hunting

my man Colt. At this point is July eleventh, twenty ten. Colt is desperate to get to Cuba. So what does he do? Steals another go fast boat. This is his last chance. Yes, so he's get spotted though it gets like three point thirty in the morning. When he steals it. The cops they go and they rush and fire up their own boats. So now the chase is offat chase. Colt leads them to the open ocean. He's gonna make a run for it, headed to Cuba. I man, he

thinks that's Cuba, so then I hope it's not Dominican Republic. Anyway, He's on the open ocean, right, colt speedboat is way faster than the cops watercraft. In the dark of the night, they're on the ocean, racing to Cuba. Colt escapes the Bahamian cops, but his luck finally runs out in the dark of night, his speedboat slams into a sandbar. That's how the Bahamian cops able to catch up to him. And when this is where it gets wild, to make

sure he can't escape again, what do they do. They pull out those guns and just start firing on them. Oh no, oh, yeah, they fire on the speedboat, but not at the kid. They shoot out the engines so that way he can't They they basically disabled the boat, so Cold is now captured, taken into custody the Behaming authorities. They parade their capture in a walk of shame on

the island. Yeah, tropical purp walk right, Yeah, so the authorities they only have Cold on one solitary charge though failure to present his passport, So he gets fined three hundred dollars. And they're about to like let him go, and the US are like, you have to hold him. He will be right there. Take the two days. So they get there, they arrive, they take the kid into custody where he gets transported to Miami. The Americans they

got plenty of charges, they got to got charge. Yeah, so they throw sixty seven felony charges at Colt that would have resulted in maybe twenty thirty years in federal prison.

Speaker 3

Yeah.

Speaker 2

Yeah. The total for all of his damage and the cost of the man hunt, they're saying was one point four million dollars. That's what he now owes in restitution to victims and to the state. Now, remember I told you he called his lawyer from his go fast vote to negotiate the sale of his life story to Hollywood. Yeah, well he was on something there. He sells his life rights to twentieth century Fox for exactly one point four million dollars because he cannot profit from his crimes, but

he can send it all into restitution. Sce gets exactly that in his trial. The cult's the lawyer he pleads for lniency. He's like, he's a kid. Look at him, right, They sight his upbringing, his home, his abusive parents, the bully against school. The judge and the jury. They listen to all this, right, and they feel bad, just like you and I do. From a man cult. The judge even says, and I quote, I think this case is a tragedy but also a triumph with the human spirit.

I sympathized with the defendant for his terrible upbringing that he had. It was tragedy that he had to steal food to endure an alcoholic an abusive mother. But nevertheless, the sentence of six years and I wish him well. Six years boom yeah, just like that, he's sentenced for a few heads off to federal prison. He's since been released. Six years isn't bad considering what he was possible looking at. So there you go, Elizabeth, the story of the Barefoot

Bandit or aka the Bigfoot Bandit. I prefer it. He's out, he got released.

Speaker 3

Wow, I hope he's doing well.

Speaker 2

What's a ridiculous takeaway there? You know?

Speaker 4

I think that like early childhood intervention is so key, yes, you know, and it's age zero, simple stuff that, like just the attention nutrition, you know, definitely, yes, that makes such a huge difference that you know, if a kid's hungry, they can't pay attention, and they're not.

Speaker 3

Their brain doesn't develop in the way it should.

Speaker 4

This kid like so smart and clever, you know, it's just what a waste, My god, it's your takeaway.

Speaker 2

I just related to him very much, like all the whole time, like I you know me, I love planes. I would have always wanted to steal a plane. I think the only thing is that the difference is our relationship store a mother. The reason why would would have killed my mother? Yeah, and so I didn't do it for that reason, whereas he's like, you know, yeah, she's already taken care of that. I don't have to worry

about that. So I think that's what it is. It's just like the the he couldn't be guilted or whatever, exchange, whatever it is that they kept me. But the bond between you know, a boy and his mother the only thing they kept me from doing more serious crimes. Yeah wow, yeah, So there you go. Thanks mom, I know, right, So thank your mother, call your grandmother and thank your mother. So you're in the mood for a talkback. I am after that one. D can you favor this one? Oh my god, I love get.

Speaker 5

I downloaded the iHeart app specifically to tell you, Elizabeth, how disappointed I am that the joke of you not watching TV is over. I don't like Scandal era Elizabeth. I giggled so hard at the jokes that you didn't watch any TV but somehow knew about all TV. I miss it, but still love you. Thanks for the show.

Speaker 4

Oh my god, I'm sorry to disappoint I really am, but I had to stand in my truth.

Speaker 2

I'll tell you this much. She doesn't listen to radio doesn't work well as always.

Speaker 4

Uh.

Speaker 2

You can find us online at Ridiculous Crime on your social media's and we have our website that we love. Go check it out ridiculous crime dot com. There you can give a you know, a review of you. You can tell us about you on the website, so go there and tell us about you. Also, if you'd like, you can go to the iHeart app, download it and you can leave us talk back again. You can tell us about you, or you can tell us about things you found, or you just tell us.

Speaker 3

About joke disappointed you or Elizabeth.

Speaker 2

Also, you can always email us if you like a Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com. Please type in dear producer d thanks for listening. We will catch you next time. Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaren Burnett, produced and edited by the Harley Davidson Iron Wing to Our Colt Harris Moore, Mister Dave Houston, and starring Analys Rucker as Judith. Research is by amateur pilots Marissa Brown

and Andrea Song Sharpened Tear. Our theme song is by Bad Boys of the Pacific Northwest Thomas Lee and Travis Dunton. The host wardrobe provided by Botany five hundred. Guest hair and makeup by Sparkleshot and mister Andrea Hotel. Accommodations provided by the Omni. Executive producers are Ben hot Meal, Bowlin and Nol Survival Knife, Brown.

Speaker 3

Dick, Why say It one more time?

Speaker 2

Geek We Cry.

Speaker 1

Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio four more podcasts. My Heart Radio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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